Airbnb’s Kooky New HQ Is the Envy of Silicon Valley

Airbnb recently moved into its new headquarters in the SoMa neighborhood of San Francisco. The atrium of the renovated warehouse features a three-story green wall. Image: Emily Hagopian

The 72,000-square-foot space was designed for idea generation. This is the atrium overlooking the reception area. Image: Carlos Chavarria

Glancing across the atrium is like looking at a real-life replica of Hitchcock's Rear Window. Only the Airbnb version is a series of eight meeting rooms that are modeled after Airbnb listings from around the world. Image: Carlos Chavarria

“We wanted to design a space that we considered the most creative place on earth,” says Joe Gibbia, co-founder of Airbnb. Image: Emily Hagopian

The requisite free snacks. Image: Emily Hagopian

The hope is that by providing employees with creative spaces (like this Milan apartment), they'll be more excited about work, meetings and idea generation. Image: Leslie Williamson

The Gensler designers embedded themselves in the old Airbnb offices for four months to observe how the employees worked. What they found was that everyone was mobile. Image: Emily Hagopian

There's even a room modeled after the apartment where the founders hosted their first Airbnb guest. Image: Leslie Williamson

No detail was left out, not even this model dino. Image: Leslie Williamson

The men's bathroom is wilderness themed. Because there's nothing like using the restroom with a fake bear watching. Image: Carlos Chavarria

The main work space is open plan and was inspired by the layout of the Rhode Island School of Design, where the founders originally met. Image: Carlos Chavarria

The President's Room. Image: Carlos Chavarria

Timothy Goodman created a 60-foot installation that covers a wall of the cafeteria. Image: Carlos Chavarria

Each of the drawings represent a "moment" that employees have shared over the years. Image: Carlos Chavarria

There are certain perks to working at a startup with a non-startup bank account. Among them: three free hot meals a day, stock options and impending fortune from an IPO. The tradeoff? You’re gonna spend a lot of time at the office. More established tech companies have long lured top-grade talent in—and kept them there—with tricked-out offices; this is most famously exemplified with Facebook and Google’s absurd amenities that render employees’ personal home pretty much useless.

But as tech companies begin moving from the South Bay to San Francisco proper, gimmicky design and excessive offerings have been replaced with a more modest, tasteful even, office design. This is comparatively speaking, of course. Airbnb’s new digs fall into that category—there are no scooter paths or in-house barber shops, yet—but it’s fair to say the online hospitality company has still made a big investment in their new home. Launched in 2008, the online hospitality company has come a long way since the days of operating out of its founders’ shared apartment. Over the summer, Airbnb moved into a giant renovated warehouse in the San Francisco neighborhood of SoMa. And it’s pretty fancy.

Right here you’re looking at a conference room modeled after the War Room in Dr. Strangelove. Because, why not? Image: Airbnb

A conference room inspired by the War Room in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove.

The 72,000-square-foot space, designed by Gensler and Interior Design Fair, is home to a few notable features: A series of eight private meeting rooms that are exact replicas of some of the service’s coolest listings from around the world; an atrium with a massive living wall climbing up the brick facade and a Rear Window-esque view into the aforementioned meeting rooms; and, most importantly, a conference room inspired by the War Room in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, complete with a circular table and overhead lighting.

If this sounds like design overkill, you probably have a point. But the goal of this office is like the goal of any other well-to-do tech office in the Bay Area: Keep people happy and, more importantly, keep them at work. “We wanted the space to feel like home,” Joe Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb, explains. ‘Why wouldn’t the office be as comfortable as your home, if you’re going to end up spending a majority of your working life there?”

The design-centric thinking is genuine. Both Gebbia and his co-founder Brian Chesky are alums of the Rhode Island School of Design where they studied graphic and industrial design before moving to San Francisco and fatefully offering up their home as a temporary bed and breakfast. In an homage to their alma mater, Airbnb’s open offices are modeled after the school; it even boasts donated furniture from RISD’s design studios. At RISD the design process was never in isolation,” Gebbia says. “In a lot of ways the real learning at RISD happened after-hours when you’re working side by side with your colleagues.”

The cafeteria is named AteAteAte, after the building address (888 Brannan St.). Image: Carlos Chavarria

That same collaboration-by-design ethos was built into the offices through breaking out different work areas. “We wanted to design a space that we considered the most creative place on earth,” says Gibbia. “We wanted to make a space that facilitate idea generation. That was top of mind for us.” The founders insisted that Gensler designers embed in the old offices for four months to take note of Airbnb culture and how employees function.

What they found was that the young engineers and designers were very much a product of our mobile technology world. “There are no corded phones or desktop computers, which means that no one is chained to a desk,” Gebbia explains. Employees are free to wander from their assigned desks in the open plan office, setting up shop in the atrium, dining room or library, depending on the project they’re working on.

The main office thoroughfare is outfitted with space where employees can work on projects that are in the beginning phases. “In the early stages of an idea and you’re looking for feedback or perspective on what you’re working on, you can position yourself on the thoroughfare,” Gebbia says. “And inevitably people will stop and say, oh what’s that that you’re working on? It’s a place that invites conversation and the exchange of ideas.”

Alternatively, if employees need to keep their heads down and knock something out, they can book one of the more private rooms that are modeled after choice listings from the site. There’s a Balinese-inspired room with a sectional couch, flat-screen TV and a wall full of decorative vases. There’s also a minimalist Paris flat full of Eames furniture, and an exact replica of the founder’s home where it all started.

It’s like working out of your home; the only thing that reminds you that you’re not is the notable lack of messiness and a squawk box sitting on the center of the coffee table. But it works. “It’s nearly impossible to book the rooms now, they’re so popular,” Gebbia says. “It’s suddenly like, meetings aren’t boring anymore.”